After the last post, which featured Berocca and their ever-so-slightly-stolen idea of using multiple treadmills to great comedic effect, I feel obliged to write about one of my favourite sets of adverts ever. The Carling “You know who your mates are” adverts, the most recent being this:
This one features a group of friends stranded on a desert island, until a boat appears, but one of the group is missing. Not wanting to leave the hapless fellow stranded, the group of friends elects to wait for the next one. If you’re below the age of 30 and have a penchant for the occasional alcoholic beverage with friends, this will sound familiar as a regular fixture on a Friday or Saturday night. Usually at the end.
As my use of the phrase “sets of adverts” in the first paragraph implies, this isn’t the first time that Carling has made an advert that lampoons a typical night out. Not only have they been on a desert island, but also in the wild west:
and to one of the poles:
even in space:
Each one illustrates an aspect of a night out with good friends; gathering everyone together, the moments where a night hangs in the balance, and the inevitable rejection from a club because someone doesn’t have formal shoes. They have yet to air one involving a dodgy takeaway and the subsequent day spent by the toilet. Maybe they’ll show that next time. In a volcano.
This is a smart group of commercials, intelligently parodying both big-budget feature films and comparatively mundane nights out. It also succeeds in making me want to go out drinking with friends (which may include Carling, I suppose), which possibly says more about my time spent as a student than the efficacy of the adverts.
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